Looking for a good cheap Fanless PC

Looking for a reasonably cheap fanless PC for my mill. Did a lot of digging on here looking a various processors and not sure what I really need. I want plug and play as much as possible. I don't wish to spend hours fussing with Linux to get up and running. This will be connected to a Mesa 7I92 (ethernet) running a 4 axis stepper machine. I am heavily invested in the QtDragon screen now (QtVcp) and want smooth graphics. I don't plan to watch videos while machining.

I read the RP4 doesn't seem to run QtVcp very well. I have read that an Intel Celeron is a good choice.

Opinions, thoughts on this PC:
www.newegg.com/p/1VK-01S3-007B4

Any other advice on specific features/processors/minimum CPU speed/graphics processors/minimum ram I should be looking for?

Thanks All!

turbostew wrote:

Looking for a reasonably cheap fanless PC for my mill. Did a lot of digging on here looking a various processors and not sure what I really need. I want plug and play as much as possible. I don't wish to spend hours fussing with Linux to get up and running. This will be connected to a Mesa 7I92 (ethernet) running a 4 axis stepper machine. I am heavily invested in the QtDragon screen now (QtVcp) and want smooth graphics. I don't plan to watch videos while machining.

I read the RP4 doesn't seem to run QtVcp very well. I have read that an Intel Celeron is a good choice.

Opinions, thoughts on this PC:
www.newegg.com/p/1VK-01S3-007B4

Any other advice on specific features/processors/minimum CPU speed/graphics processors/minimum ram I should be looking for?

Thanks All!

I run a firewall\router in a similar case and it after a while the outside of the case gets really really hot, and the one I have is for industrial applications. I actually have the case held upright in an old drill press vise and it seems to help. I guess it doesn't help that I live in the southern hemisphere in a country that is 1.6km from the sun and box is in an upstairs room right under a window.

Hopefully that wont be an issue, but just a thing to keep in mind.

andypugh wrote:

That PC will probably be OK. I recently bought the cheapest PC on Amazon[1] (purely to test installation media with) and it works fine with a Mesa ethernet card (though with a pit of a problem with the internal WiFi which I haven't had enough incentive to get to the bottom of)

[1] On that day it was: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089RDVP7F at £85

I'd be interested to know if you come up with a solution. Ever since I have been using linuxcnc I've been using fanless USFF PC's and even then the advise was to disable or remove the wifi card and run with a wifi dongle.

The Odoid H2+ is my fanless PC of choice these days. It has a UART onboard and I have a prototype board connected by a ribbon cable that adds a RS485 to the UART .

The Odroid H2+ is getting harder to get

was just looking to get one.
Asrock Q1900b-itx is a classic option if it is ok to work with bare motherboards.

The PC Andy links to has an Atom processor. What is the word on Atoms, are they ok
or is it better to go with Celeron?

I searched for "mini pc fanless" on Amazon and there are just too many to mention.
I would go for a celeron with 4GB mem, a small ssd, usb3 ports, at least one RJ45 ethernet and wifi.

I used an Asrock J3355B, prior to switching to the Odroid H2.

I'd choose a Celeron over an Atom.

Thanks All for the replies.

I am running a fullsize desktop now with an I5 which works great as expected. My 5x10 cnc router is at an industrial complex and it's a busy little machine probably working 25 hours a week. I also have a CNC Bridgeport mill with 4th axis here at my house with 7I92 as well. I am continuously developing QtDragon for my own needs. What I think I want is a small PC I can throw in the backpack when I go to the shop, run the router, come home, connect to my router simulator (small drivers, steppers, momentary switches) and develop in the comforts of my home office, then also go plug it to the mill when I need to mill something. So fanless is ideal but I guess not absolutely necessary, although router shop is duuuustyyy. Small is real important, I already carry a big cad workstation laptop with me in a big backpack with some room for little PC. I would probably buy 2 of whatever for redundancy. Can't have downtime with the router.

The OdroidH2+ seems nice but the case options look archaic and not so robust being moved all the time. If someone made a badass industrial case I would be more excited...

So what about one of these?

www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-NUC-D34010WYK-Int...6:g:4i8AAOSwWDBgT21t

Thanks All,
Kent

Well after pondering it for a while, I am thinking just get an Intel NUC with core I5 CPU. Probably low risk of having install problems and sluggish performance and due to being Intel it should be easy to find exact duplicates in the future....

So more digging has led me to the purchase of a Lenovo M93 Tiny with I5.

Thanks All for the help,
Kent